th
20
century architecture
De Stijl (style)
•
•
Dutch “The style”, 20th century art
movement founded by painter Piet
Mondrian who promoted utopian
ideals and developed a simplified
geometric style
Open plan, flat color, geometric
rectangular shape (like Mondrian’s
paintings)
• Mondrian
De Stijl architecture:
Gerrit Rietveld, Schroder House, Netherlands, 1924
Bauhaus (style)
• A school of art and design, promoting unity
between architecture, art and design
• Like de stijl, bauhaus was rooted in utopian
principles
• Avoids all embellishments
• Simple and geometric
Bauhaus
Gropius, Shop Block at the Bauhaus, Germany, 19251926
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, model for glass skyscraper,
Germany, 1922
International Style
• Bauhaus eventually became known as the
International Style due to widespread
popularity
• “machine for living”
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, France,
1929
Art Deco (America)
• America embraced Bauhaus, which rejected
ornament, but also embraced other styles
• Universal term that applies to architecture,
interior, furniture, jewelry, fashion etc.
• Streamlines, elongated look, symmetrical,
simple flat shapes
• Chrysler Building has a diminishing fan
design, streamlined and flat, popular design in
1920’s
William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NY NY 1928-1930
Prairie Style
• Associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, who
believed architecture was natural and organic
• Roofs extend beyond the walls, nonsymmetrical design, interacts with its natural
surroundings
• Wandering plan, captures the expansive,
natural environment
Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House, Chicago, 19071909
Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater, Bear
Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939
Modernism
• Architecture style that developed after WWII
• Concerned with formalism and simplicity
• Buildings have intriguing organic sculptural
qualities
Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum, NY
NY 1943-1959
Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut, France, 1950-1955 (mountain top chapel,
reflects the shape of praying hands, a doves wing and a ships prow)
Saarinen, TWA terminal, Kennedy Airport, NY, NY (design suggests expansive
wings, movement and flight)
Utzon, Sydney Opera House, Australia, 1959-1972 (clusters of
concrete shells, suggest buoyancy of seabird wings, billowing
sails on a ship)
Minimalist style of modern
architecture
• Based on bauhaus style less is more
• Powerful and heroic looking buildings in an
urban landscape
• Giant corporate skyscrapers
• Sleek, rigid, geometric
Mies van der Rohe & Philip Johnson, Seagram
Building, NY, 1956-1958
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sears Tower,
Chicago, 1974
PostModernism (style)
• A rejection of the conservative style of
modernism
• More expansive and inclusive in design
• Can draw in some inspiration from the past,
such as Rome, temple designs etc.
Charles Moore, Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, 1976-1980
Philip Johnson & John Burgee, AT&T (now Sony) Building, NY,
1978-1984 (more granite than glass, variation of a classical
pediment at the top)
Deconstructivism (style)
• Disorients the observer
• Unstable, imbalance, assymmetry, irregularity
Behnisch, Hysolar Institute, Germany, 1987
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Spain, 1997